THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



Mawson and Mackay conducted further experiments 

 on the cooking of seal meat with blubber. While at 

 our winter quarters, Mackay had made some ex- 

 periments on the use of blubber as a fuel. He had con- 

 structed a blubber lamp, the wick of which kept alight 

 for several hours at a time, feeding itself on the seal 

 oil. He had tried the experiment of heating up water 

 over this blubber lamp, and was partly successful at 

 the time when we left winter quarters for our present 

 sledging journey. But his experiments at the time 

 were not taken very seriously, and the blubber lamp 

 was left behind, a fact which we now much regretted. 

 An eiFective cooking-stove was, however, evolved, as 

 the result of a series of experiments this day, out of one 

 of our large empty biscuit tins. The lid of this was 

 perforated with a number of circular holes for the 

 reception of wicks. Its edges were bent down, so as 

 to form supports to keep the wick-holder about half an 

 inch above the bottom of the biscuit tin. The wick- 

 holder was put in place; wicks were made of pieces of 

 old caHco food-bags rolled in seal blubber, or with thin 

 slices of seal blubber enfolded in them, the calico being 

 done up in Kttle rolls for the purpose of making wicks, 

 as one rolls a cigarette, the seal blubber taking the 

 place of the tobacco in this case. Lumps of blubber 

 were laid round the wick-holder. Then, after some 

 difficulty, the wicks were lighted. They burned feebly 

 at first, as seal blubber has a good deal of water in 

 it. After some minutes of fitful spluttering, the wicks 

 got fairly alight, and as soon as the lower part of the 

 biscuit tin was raised to a high temperature, the big 

 lumps of blubber at the side commenced to have the 

 water boiled out of them and the oil rendered down. 

 This oil ran under the wick-holder and supplied the 



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